London
Wednesday, January 3rd 2007 - 12:27 PM
Generally, i don't like London - i'm not a big fan of cities at all, and London is a particularly dismal example. But i had a good day there yesterday.
I went there to catch up with a couple of friends - Agathe, a French woman, who i was working with in Kabul, and who'd been visiting England for a few days and was catching the train to Paris that afternoon. And Elizah, an Aussie sheila who's been living in London for 5 years now, poor thing, and talks just like a pommy bastard!
I was stunned at the price of public transport there. It's insane to charge so much in a massive and crowded city like London. They should make it free, not expensive - it would save the country so much money if they did. But that scumbag Thatcher started off this high fares nonsense.
In the early 80s the Greater London Council (GLC), under the leadership of Ken Livingstone, reduced public transport fares. The results were amazing. There were less cars on the roads - and consequently less traffic jams - and the whole city became just that little bit more pleasant to live in.
But Maggie didn't like that very much and they forced the GLC to double the fares after a few weeks, or months (i can't remember now). Naturally, when the fares went up, the buses and trains emptied and the streets filled with cars and slow moving traffic jams. It was lovely (not)! And it's just continued to get worse and worse since then.
It cost me four quid to catch the underground from Euston to Finsbury park (for the Aussies reading this, that's like $12 one way from Circular Quay to Petersham in Sydney, from the city to St Kilda in Melbourne, Buranda to the Valley in Brisbane, or the city to Nightcliff in Darwin). I find it hard to believe anyone - apart from rich tourists, maybe - can afford to catch it at all.
London's already a nightmare, why do the bastards have to make it worse?
Anyway, as i said, i had a good day in London yesterday, without any of the usual frustrations and hassles - and, amazingly, without getting mugged!
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan